Lee Soo-man Is Back With 24 New Idols. Three Were Born In 2013.

Three years after he sold his SM shares and agreed not to make albums in Korea, Lee Soo-man is back. On 12 October 2026 he launched two groups at once: A2O SOUL (15 members) and A2O LITE (9 members), 24 new artists. Three of A2O LITE's nine were born in 2013. THE RETURN February 2023: during the battle for control of SM, Lee Soo-man sells his SM shares to HYBE and agrees to three years of no album producing in Korea. Meanwhile: he founds A2O and launches the girl group A2O MAY, active mainly in China and the US. February 2026: the agreement expires. March 2026: his first move home is an A2O audition. THE SHOW 12 October 2026, KINTEX, Goyang: 'WELCOME TO SOULITE From A2O SOUL A2O LITE'. Lee Soo-man presents on stage for about half an hour. A2O stands for "Alpha to Omega". His line: as long as K-pop groups are classed as singers, the most important thing is the song. A2O SOUL: 15 members, five Korean and ten from China, Japan and Thailand. Debut song 'SUPERSTAR' (1980s-synth synthwave). A2O LITE: 9 members from Korea, China, Japan and Thailand. Debut song 'NEON'. Both songs run past three minutes; the videos used 4D Gaussian splatting capture. Official videos uploaded 12 October; songs released 13 October. Views read 13 October, about 8 p.m. KST: NEON about 2.4 million; SUPERSTAR about 830,000. THE AGES A2O LITE's members were born between 2008 and 2013; average age 15. The three youngest were born in 2013 and are reported as 13. Korean outlets compared them with BoA, who debuted under Lee Soo-man at SM in 2000, at 13. SUNNY Sunny of Girls' Generation, Lee Soo-man's niece, left SM and, according to A2O, took producing lessons and worked on the trainee programme, the trainees' care, styling, choreography and videos, and directed their recordings in a US studio. Before the debut, A2O introduced the trainees in 'A2O Rookies'. WHAT WE ARE NOT CLAIMING Any chart result (none yet), who funds A2O, any sale price, or anything about the 2023 dispute beyond the sale and the agreement. THE COMMENTS From the comment sections under the two official videos, Dispatch's debut-show clip, and JTBC's and KBS's reports, shown in the original with our literal English translation. Attributed to the platform only. FOOTAGE Broadcast, stage and official video footage is used briefly, with its audio removed, for news commentary. All sources are attributed on screen. SOURCES My Daily, Kukmin Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun, Maeil Business, Star News, Gukje News, MHN, Sports Chosun, YTN star, JTBC, KBS, MBC, SBS, Yonhap News TV, Dispatch. Thank you for watching. #LeeSooMan #이수만 #A2OSOUL #A2OLITE #A2O #NEON #SUPERSTAR #Sunny #써니 #Kpop #MOCHiMELON